Louise Julig wrote a wonderful post about hyphens in her Thoughts Happen blog.
It’s both clarifying and funny. She wore a purple wrist band to remind her of her pledge not to complain. The problem? The bracelet omitted a needed hyphen, prompting Louise’s grammar complaint:
Argh! I just can’t stand it anymore! I’ve been doing this purple-bracelet “stop complaining” exercise for almost three weeks now (and am on my record 5th day of not complaining) but I can’t hold it in any longer because every time I look at the half inch of rubber encircling my wrist I want to gouge a little hyphen between “Complaint” and “Free.” It’s “A Complaint-Free World,” people, not “A Complaint Free World”! Oh the irony of complaining about the “complaint free” bracelet. But really!
Hyphens are very complicated. I agree with Grammar Girl’s recommendation to check a dictionary and style guide when possible. When it’s not, fall back on this baseline rule:
Hyphenate compound modifiers when they come before a noun, and don’t hyphenate them when they come after a noun.
Louise illustrated this rule nicely:
Why is this? Here’s my best explanation: hyphens group modifiers together for clarity. Say you have a red brick house. Is it a red house? Yes. Is it a brick house? Yes. Therefore, no hyphen is needed. However, what if you have a “gluten free recipe.” Is it a gluten recipe? No. Is it a free recipe? No. Therefore, a hyphen is needed to group the modifiers together so you know the recipe has no gluten. It’s a gluten-free recipe.
Why then do you not hyphenate after the noun, e.g. “the recipe is gluten free”? The temptation is to throw in extra hyphens just in case, e.g. “the recipe is gluten-free.” But it’s just as bad to over-hyphenate as to under-hyphenate, and it really isn’t necessary. Here’s why: when the modifier comes after the noun, it’s only modifying the one word immediately after it. So we ask ourselves, “What kind of ‘free’ is it?” and the answer is “gluten.” It’s gluten free.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Mary, so glad you liked the post! It seems to have touched a nerve with people – glad I’m not the only Grammar Geek out there
-Louise aka @ThoughtsHappen
Thanks for pointing me to this post. Love the topic… Grammar geeks unite!
That’s funny, Mary. I found your explanation while looking for clarification on the hyphen issue so that I could fix the copy on the back of a line of gluten-free flour mixes. I think this must be a sign from above:-)
The client uses an un-hyphenated version on the front panel: – Gluten Free, – Soy Free, – Milk Free and so on. That’s almost acceptable, isn’t it?
Clive
Clive,
Whether to hyphenate or not, (Gluten Free or Gluten-Free) depends on placement before or after the noun it modifies. If it is before, the hyphen is needed. If it is after, no hyphen.
So, “Gluten-Free Cake Mix” is correct. “Gluten Free Cake Mix” is incorrect. Conversely, “Our cake mix is gluten free” is correct, and “Our cake mix is gluten-free is incorrect.”